Portrait Critique on background

[Renee Brown]

Pam,

Thank you for the compliment on "Riesling". He doesn't even show his best on the web. My digital camera picks up every color. His blanket is much more cohesive in person and it is not nearly as blue as shown. Plus, I still have that photographic glare problem in the upper left. In person, the background is very dark and the dog leaps out (kind of).

Okay, here's how I do the photography session. I meet with the client and subject around 2:30pm on a sunny day. The owner becomes the handler and I ask that another person, that the dog is familiar with, help out . That second person stands behind me and distracts the dog and gets his ears up. The owner holds the dog (and this is very important) on a choke chain. That is the only way to control the dog's head and have a quick and successful photography session. The fact that the owner is the handler eliminates any unforeseen problems (like biting- ouch!)

I just took in a five Samoyed family commission (heads only ). It took three rolls of film to get five excellent shots. I use a Canon Rebel 2000 plus my digital camera. Get the dog to sit, stand, and don't forget a bench if you're doing full-body shots. Hope this helps you. Secondly, I want to thank everyone who posted advice for me. Ever since I found "Stroke of Genius", I have learned so much. I have totally changed my lighting and now have good source material.

I also bought Chris Saper's new book, "Painting Beautiful Skin Tones With Color and Light" and I cannot say enough good things about it. It is a great book.

Here's the newest portrait I am working on (not finished yet and the flowers are just getting started). As you can see, it is a big improvement from the original one that is critiqued on this thread (which by the way, got pulled from my portrait tour in favor of better paintings). So, thanks to you all.

Renee Brown